Seeing Past the Darkness
by Umi Pryde
Summary: Kerry never thought she would see Ethan Bryne again. The companions meet years later due to tragic events. Then when Ethan goes missing with his secret in danger, It’s up to Kerry to save him, but can she do it alone, or will she get help along the way?
1. Prologue

**Seeing Past the Darkness**

A _Companions of the Night _fanfic

**Disclaimer:**Companions of the Night and characters are the creation of and belong to Vivivan Vande Velde. I am just a fan, having fun continuing the story. I make no profit from this story.

Full Summary: Kerry never thought she would see Ethan Bryne again. But when tragedy strikes and he appears in her life once more, Kerry must decide just how much and how long she wants to be with him. Before she finds her answer, they find themselves in a dire situation in which Michel's secret and very existence are threatened. It is up to Kerry to save him, but does she have the strength to do it alone, or will she get some help along the way?

This story, after the Prologue, will pick up four and half years after the end of the book. Kerry will be in college and from there the story will progress. I just thought of and began this story so I'm still working out some things with the plot, I enjoy leaving room for reader input, so don't be shy about suggestions. Note: I _had_ to write the prologue for this story, because frankly, it is how I wanted the story to end while I was reading it.

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**- Prologue -**

As Kerry made her way home walking down the street away from Gilbert Marsala's house, she wondered if she would ever see Ethan, _Michel_, again.

_'Probably not.'_ she told herself in response to her own question.

The words she was suppose to recall to tell her father and the police kept replaying in her head. She willed herself to remember them, precisely as instructed. She knew what was at risk if she didn't. She couldn't control her thoughts as well as she wanted, as she remembered the story Ethan and her had come up with, the visions of the past few days and nights kept swishing through her mind. The moments of the past hour were the clearest. Kerry could still feel the sensation of Ethan's lips against her neck. Still, she kept walking towards her home.

_'I don't regret leaving, though I wouldn't mind it if sometime in the future we meet again.'_ She kept her feet moving, even as the wind whipped at her. She wrapped her arms around herself to keep warm, trying to shield herself from the cold night air.

_'Perhaps then he'd change his mind.'_

Kerry had no way to know that as she traveled farther away from the house, Ethan stood at a window watching her go, thinking a similar thought about her. He could still smell her, even as she walked away, but her scent wasn't what he wanted. He wanted her to glance back, just once, over her shoulder, back at the house- back at him. He'd come out to her if she did. But as Kerry reached the end of the street and made her first turn, successfully leaving Ethan's sight line he turned away himself and began his work of 'staging' the house. Just like they had planned. He had to content himself with his own hopes for their paths crossing in the future.

_'Perhaps then, she'd change her mind.'_


	2. Chapter One

**Seeing Past the Darkness**

A _Companions of the Night _fanfic

**Disclaimer:**Companions of the Night and characters are the creation of and belong to Vivivan Vande Velde. I am just a fan, having fun continuing the story. I make no profit from this story.

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**- Chapter One -**

When Kerry answered her cell phone after just giving a toast to her friends' engagement it never occurred to her that she would be told her father and brother had just been killed in a car accident.

The phone dropped to the ground, making a strange clunk noise. Kerry stood, looking around her, trying to convince herself this was a dream, a horrible nightmare that any moment now she'd find herself jolting up in bed with sweat covering her back. Where were the impossible things the mind places in dreams, those hints at a false reality? She could barely understand the voices of her friends saying her name, asking her what was wrong and if she was alright. Her knees hit the ground as her body became as disassociated with her mind as Kerry felt to the world at the moment. She slightly acknowledged her friends around her, grabbing hold of her, pulling her into a chair. Kerry couldn't speak. She wasn't even sure she was breathing. She couldn't remember a time when she felt this disconnected to the world around her, it was an unsettling feeling, but it was worth trying to stay this way when she knew what kind of reality awaited her.

The phone was picked up by one of Kerry's friends who then began questioning the person on the other end. Just like her phone, Kerry soon found herself being lifted up and slowly ushered out side and into the back of a cab with her friend Lucy, the one whose engagement Kerry had only moments ago toasted, heading out of the city - back to her home of Brockport.

Had Kerry not been in such a state of shock, she might have just noticed a face in the restaurant that would have been very familiar to her. The man who she had once known as Ethan Bryne sat at the far end of the restaurants bar watching the scene unfold before him. _Watching her._

It had been four and a half years, just about, since that night they said their goodbyes at Marsala's house. He was aware that for her it was the last time they had seen each other, but he had made it a habit, after that night to keep watch on her. To begin with he told himself it was to make sure Marsala had not had anyone else working with him who might want revenge on Kerry for her involvement in his and his associates deaths. But then, he couldn't lie to himself anymore. The late nights of watching her sleep through her window, the trips he'd take in his car always able to see her arrive and leave work. It became something he had to do. And the realization of that fact alone was enough to finally convince himself to go. He _loved her_, and what made knowing that worse was the memory of her saying those exact words to him. He could no longer trust himself to keep his promise to let her go - when he _craved her_ as much as he did.

So for him, the last time he had seen Kerry Nowicki was three years five months ago. He didn't mind though, it hadn't been much time for him, but it was plenty to release his wantof her. Not that he didn't still feel any connection to her. That was how he was able to recognize her as soon as she entered the place. When he had sensed a familiar presence, he had looked at the door and a smile had grown on his face for just a second. A moment of appreciation at the thought of how interesting it was that she would walk into the same place he did this night, his first night back in Rochester since the whole Marsala incident had ended. Was it fate?

He found it hard to not keep some attention on her, whether it was through the use of his eyes or other senses.

That he why he couldn't help but react when he felt her heart beat change so drastically. He dropped his glass to the bar and gazed in her direction. He didn't need the use of his vampire abilities to know something was a miss with her. The look on her face told him everything.

As some of the friends Kerry had come in with crowded around her in worry he knocked on the bar in front of him to get the bartenders attention. He paid the man and left just as Kerry, being led by her friends, was leaving the restaurant. He passed right by the last person in the group, a fairly well built guy with spiky blonde hair.

"Your friend alright? She doesn't look too good," he said with a casual tone as he held the door open for the guy.

"She's fine given the circumstances, she just found out that both her father and brother are dead." The guy ran off to join the others as they flagged two cabs. Watching silently from the side of the building he saw Kerry and one friend go into the back of one cab and all the others piled into the other. He stayed just long enough to watch the cab pull out into traffic and begin its journey out of the city. He already knew where it would be headed.


	3. Chapter Two

**Seeing Past the Darkness**

A _Companions of the Night _fanfic

**Disclaimer:**Companions of the Night and characters are the creation of and belong to Vivivan Vande Velde. I am just a fan, having fun continuing the story. I make no profit from this story.

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**- Chapter Two -**

The words sprang up on the screen but they weren't entirely unexpected.

Danus: _I thought you said you would never go back...?_

The response was simple,

_I know._

And then the internet connection was terminated and the computer shut down. Michel let out a sigh as the screen flicked off, leaving him in darkness. He rested his elbows on the desk in front of him and placed his hands over his head.

"Believe me, I know." he whispered aloud to no one.

--

As they drove into town Kerry couldn't help but notice nothing much had changed around Brockport, but then it was a college town, nothing really changes except for the people you see walking around. She was grateful her friend April had come with her, even more so for her help in making the funeral arrangements and calling friends of the family to inform them of the tragic accident. Kerry sat in the passenger seat of the rental car April had gotten for them to use while Kerry met with the family lawyer to receive her father's will. She was thankful that April had left her after she made the official identification of her father's and brother's bodies. She knew there was no way she could have done that alone.

She closed her eyes tight, fighting back the urge to break down crying again like she had in the cab ride back to Brockport. It hadn't been easy hearing the news, but now she had the visions of what her family looked like after the accident and it didn't help her imagination of what happened a bit. Ian had survived the crash the coroner had told her when she had arrived at the morgue. He had crawled out of the car and when the paramedics arrived he was unconscious and barely breathing, he had died in transport to the hospital. Her father had died almost instantaneously. Kerry didn't have the stomach to ask what 'almost' meant then, nor did she wish to think on it much more.

"You sure you don't want me to stay over at your house? I don't have to go to a motel if you don't want me too. You just have to tell me." April spoke up, breaking Kerry's thoughts as they pulled up into the drive of the Nowicki house.

"Yeah, it'll be okay. Just be here in the morning at six." Kerry replied climbing out of the car after leaning across the seat and exchanging a friendly hug with April. Tomorrow afternoon she'd be placing her brother and father in the earth, to remain forever. The only thing Kerry could think about doing that evening was trying to get some much needed sleep. Entertaining a friend, was the farthest thing from her mind.

She unlocked the door and turned on the living room light. She walked straight up the stairs to her bedroom and fell on her bed, and then she let the tears she'd been fighting back burst out from her.

Michel was there, watching over her through her window from the roof top of one of her neighbor's houses. There were tall trees near the house and the moon wasn't out so he choose to risk being seen to look in on her. It pained him to see her cry, he wished nothing more than to be able to brush the tears from her face and hold her within his embrace.

Tell her everything is alright, that's she's safe and alive and to be happy about it. That accidents just happen sometimes. Humans were so fragile. It had been so long since he had been one, but he understood the pain she was going through. He wished she had opened the windows, but he could still make out the muffled sound of her cries.

It wasn't long before Kerry's crying ebbed down into a light sleep, of which Michel took notice of and began weighing the decision in his mind whether or not he should approach her or leave her be. He knew a part of him was being selfish, what was he to her anyway? But he still wished to let her know how sorry he was for her. It wasn't like he could go to the funeral anyways, it would be held during the day.

The phone began to ring. It startled Michel and Kerry, they jumped in place at the same time. Kerry slung herself over her bed and picked it up off her night side table.

"Hello." she spoke solemnly into the phone. Michel doubted she really wanted or needed to talk to anyone right now.

Kerry suddenly sprang up on her bed, Michel noted the reaction and searched the room for some reflexive surface in hopes to see her face but he couldn't find any. He listened more intently.

"What do you think you're doing calling me here? _Now?_ Leave me alone and don't call back again. _Ever!_" Kerry slammed the phone down hard and then stormed out of the room in a furry. Though curious as to who was on the other end, Michel decided against his instincts and remained where he was on the neighbors rooftop. The trees were providing him good coverage and he would be able to hear if something more happened, though he desperately wanted to see Kerry. And so his mental argument began.

Kerry went to the bathroom and opened the medicine cabinet.

"_I can't believe- .... calling like that-...._" she was venting aloud. She found some sleeping pills and took a couple then walked down the stairs trying to calm herself.

She ended up curling up on the sofa wrapped in a flannel throw, letting the pills do their job.

Had Kerry not taken the sleeping pills, she probably would have heard the sound of her bedroom window opening.


	4. Chapter Three

**Seeing Past the Darkness**

A _Companions of the Night _fanfic

**Disclaimer:**Companions of the Night and characters are the creation of and belong to Vivivan Vande Velde. I am just a fan, having fun continuing the story. I make no profit from this story.

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**- Chapter Three -**

It was a rather peaceful, dreamless sleep in which Kerry found herself being awoken from. She opened her eyes quickly as the sound that had startled her back into reality continued on. She jumped up in recognition and headed to her front door.

"Mornin," her friend April greeted her with a soft smile on her face and a small box from the local doughnut shop in one hand. "I know you said be here at six, but I figured you'd need someone to wake you up and make sure you don't hate everything about the day. And look, I brought delicious pastries. How can you not let me in with a smile?"

This was exactly why Kerry was glad April had agreed to come to Brockport with her. April Turner was notorious for making dull or depressing events into something worth experiencing.

Kerry smirked slightly and then yawned as she stepped back and let her friend inside.

"Smells good." Kerry commented locking the door behind them.

"Cute koala, is it yours? What's its name?" April asked setting the doughnut box down on the coffee table and taking a seat on the floor between it and the couch. Kerry whipped her head as soon as the questions registered with her. For some reason she felt like her reaction was slower than it should have been. She shrugged the thought away thinking it nothing more than nerves till she glanced at the coffee table.

"That's Footy." her voice left her, though she hadn't realized she was replying. April looked up at her, Kerry noticed the slight furrow of her brow line that meant she was worried about something. "He's Ian's..._Was_ Ian's..." Kerry continued on, it was as if her conscious was split between her mental thoughts and all other actions. Kerry wasn't sure she liked the feeling. "I didn't notice him there last night, heck, I didn't even know Ian still played with him." Kerry couldn't help but close her eyes. She smiled, but it was from the pain of what she had just said and it being hard to think of her brother doing anything would now forever be in the past tense.

"Sorry, I didn't know." April said. "So this little guy meant a lot to Ian?" she asked picking him up in her hands.

"Yeah," Kerry replied letting out a rush of air from her lungs as she did. She hadn't noticed before that she had been holding her breath. She slowly walked over and sat on the couch. "Yeah he really loved Footy, you wouldn't believe some of the stories I could tell you about just how much trouble that attachment caused me."

"Awe, did big sis have to go scower the whole house when he misplaced his stuffed buddy?" April asked playfully as they began to snack on the donuts.

Kerry just laughed. "Oh yeah. Hell one time I had to drive at night to the laundry mat we used to use." her voiced dragged on as she remembered that night herself. It had been over four years ago, a memory put away for the longest time but now that she had brought it up her mind was being filled with loads of visions of her first encounter with a vampire, of how she had met Ethan Bryne. Even though most of the memories she had of that incident were scary they still ended up bringing a slight smile to Kerry's face.

"Lucky kid. My brother would have just told me it was my fault for leaving it and to forget about it." April mused. Kerry knew April's older brother Terrance, and knew April wasn't exaggerating.

The phone began ringing and Kerry jumped in her seat. April stood up and began to head towards it but Kerry called out for her to stop.

"Just let it ring, the machine will pick it up." April turned around and nodded. The phone rang again.

"I'm going to go shower and get dressed. You can hang round down here or my room, it's the last door on the left upstairs."

"Roger." April gave a short salute and then plopped down backwards on the couch and began eating another donut humming some song to herself. Kerry grinned as she walked up the stairs. She was very glad April was here today.

Kerry took her shower quickly and then began to get dressed. She had layed out everything yesterday so that she could get herself ready quickly. It was a habit she had gotten into when she began college.

At 6:14 the two friends where heading out of the Nowicki house and into the rental car. Kerry was just about to get into the passanger seat when something clicked in her head and she ran back inside yelling for April to just wait outside for her. April watched curiously as Kerry came dashing only a minute later with Footy in hand. April smiled at her friend as she joined her in the car.

"I can put it in the casket with him." Kerry explained as she buckled and placed the stuffed koala gently in her lap. It was the only thing Kerry said during the car ride to the funeral home.

**- - -  
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Saying goodbye to those we love is never easy. It doesnt' matter if you have warning of their passing or not, the loss of them is always a difficult thing to process. For Kerry, the hardest part of letting her brother and father go was the fact that since she has been at college they weren't around one another, and yet the had been alive. Her father had eased out of calling her every evening to once or twice a month on a weekend and just keeping in touch with emails. She had always gone home for the holidays too. It wasn't the fact that they weren't standing beside her, so much as knowing they'd never stand by her again that was making it such a hard thing for her to process.

As the preacher spoke, Kerry couldn't take her eyes off the photos nesting on a small table between the two caskets. Her father's was closed, but Ian's was open. She had already said her private farewells to them before the service began. She tried to fight back the tears as the memory of lifting his arm and placing Footy in his grasp hit her again.

A touch on her shoulder from April brought her back to reality. The preacher was done speaking. The service was over, it was time for both of the caskets to be lowered down into the ground. This was the part Kerry had been dreading the most.

She forced herself to look up but what she saw made her furious. There, a few rows behind the caskets stood two people, a man and a woman. The man wasn't even looking this way, but he didn't mean anything to Kerry.

The woman she recognized immediately, for Kerry there was no mistaking who she was, even though it had been years since her eyes had looked on her mother.


	5. Chapter Four

**-Chapter Four-**

Michel knew it was risky but he had felt the need to do something, anything, for the girl who had once stayed with him through the day in a closet as he slept. For a Vampire, trusting a human as one sleeps isn't a casual thing. Plus, he owed her. Once for his own life, for whatever it is worth. And once for him dragging her into his world for the better part of three days.  
Still, he was aware of the risk he was taking, especially given recent events.  
_'I'll just come in for a few minutes. Make sure she's safe, then leave.'_ He thought to himself.

He couldn't help but smirk as he descended the stairs and found Kerry already asleep on the couch. He noticed the drying trail of tears from her eyes. Not that he was surprised by it. He already knew how much her family meant to Kerry. He took a quick glance around the room. It looked different than the last time he had seen it. It had been a mess from the struggle that took Kerry's brother and father.  
_'All that trouble she went through to save them, only to loose them later. Seems like a waste to me. But then, time means something different to them.'_

Michel wasn't sure what to do. He had come in with the idea of sort of freaking Kerry out with a surprise visit and offering his apologies for her lost. But he had waited too long it seemed, and he wasn't okay with the idea of waking her just for his amusement. So he silently turned around and headed back up the stairs.

Curiosity got the better of him as Michel came back into Kerry's room. He looked around more closely at the various framed pictures she had setting around and hanging on the walls. There were so many of them. All of them of Kerry with her family and friends.  
_'Curious that there's none of a mother.' _

Somehow his feet lead him into the other rooms upstairs as well. There wasn't much to look at in her father's room. Ian's room was much more interesting to Michel. At first glance it just looked like a messy young boys room. But as Michel's eyes slowed down he began to take notice of the patterns various toys made together on the floor as well as he arrangement of action figures on his night stand and books on his desk. It reminded Michel of someone he knew and it made him smile. Ian had pictures in his room too, though, not as many as Kerry. There was one that struck Michel's interest than any other. He picked up the plastic red frame and examined it more closely.

It was clear that the picture was years older than any in Kerry's room. Kerry couldn't be more than eleven or twelve. And there was of course Ian, a baby, being held by a woman who was standing with Kerry, her arms wrapped around her waist. Michel felt safe assuming this was her mother.  
_'At least they had some happy times together. Whatever happened afterwords.'  
_ He placed the frame back and turned to leave but something caught his eye that made him stop. He walked with a smile up to the bed and bent forward over it.  
"Well hello again." He spoke softly with a smirk at the stuffed koala he recognized from his encounter with Kerry. Had it not been for her brother's carelessness with this little toy, Michel knew he would be dead. As much trouble as her involvement might have been, Michel was glad Kerry was the kind of big sister who would break the law just to go and fetch a stuffed toy for her younger brother.  
_'I owed her. I just couldn't do anything to pay her back.'_

That wasn't quite true. He had offered her something. Michel had offered the chance to become something more, something most humans would be all too greedy to become. Immortal. Or at least the closest thing to it. But she had refused him. _'She wanted to be human.'_ It was strange to him, how even now, he wished she hadn't made that choice.

Suddenly Michel jerked upwards as his leg twitched slightly. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a disposable cell phone.  
"What is it, this isn't exactly the best time," he whispered into the receiver end.  
"You need to head back. Crysta found another victim. Fresh." A voice replied on the other end.  
Michel sighed and clenched his jaw.  
"I'm on my way," he replied and then shut the phone.

He turned to leave grabbing the koala as he did. Again he descended the stairs. Kerry didn't even flinch as he placed the bear down on the coffee table beside her and kissed her forehead.  
"It would have been nice to look into your eyes once more. Sorry." He whispered as he left the room and headed back upstairs and then snuck back out her window.

He had a long drive back to the city. He couldn't afford to linger anymore with his own selfish wants. Not when there were vampires being hunted.


	6. Chapter Five

(Hopefully this rewrite of this chapter works out better. And don't worry, next chapter will be the "Big Meet" scene ^_^ )

**Seeing Past the Darkness**

**Chapter Five**

"Kerry!" April pleaded behind her friend. Kerry ignored her and kept making her way across the cemetery. April had to jog to keep up with her stride.

"What the hell do you think you're doing here?" she shouted at her mother. Kerry didn't even give her time to reply. "How dare you show your face here. Today. I want you gone, now, and I don't ever want to see you-"

"Kerry please, I only-" her mother interrupted her but that only infuriated Kerry more.

"I don't care. I want you gone. Go away. You don't have any business here."

"Please just let me-"

"NO! You shouldn't have come. I don't want to see you." Kerry briskly turned around and headed toward where she and April had parked their car. She was thankful her mother had listened to her and was now silent but that didn't stop her from looking back at her over her shoulder and shouting one last thing, "You've got some nerve! You left us remember? We did just fine without you too! You don't just get to come here and think we want you back!"

By the time April made it to the car and got into the driver's seat, Kerry was already buckled in the passenger seat bent over her knees sobbing.

The traffic began to loosen up along the streets and the swirling red and blue lights indicated to Michel where he was needed. He glanced down at the screen of his phone just to be sure.  
He was at the right place.  
Snapping his phone shut he pulled his car over and parked along the side of the road as he drew closer to the lights. He figured it would be best to walk up to the scene, after taking a walk backwards to turn around in the next alley after the scene and approach from the opposite direction. Just because this man was a friend of Danus didn't mean he wasn't going to play it safe.

Michel had some time to make some observations as he made his way down the street. There were very few people standing around the crime scene tape. There were also very few cars parked along either side of the streets around him. These observations, along with the state of the crumbling bricks and cracked cement buildings with missing glass or boarded up windows, told him that this area wasn't just your usual run-down neighborhood. This area was unusually barren. It didn't seem right to him, but he chose not to give it more thought at present.

He sensed Crysta, Jensen, and Keenan long before he saw them. They were standing with a tall blonde man in a dark grey trench coat who looked to be in his late thirties. He had a badge hanging from a chain around his neck. Michel gave Jensen a nod as he was the only one who turned as he approached. Michel stopped his approach. His senses had just been hit by a sickening familiar scent. The leftover remains of a vampire. He began heading towards the group again.  
_The hunts are getting more frequent.  
_  
A young officer, wearing a standard blue uniform and hat flashed his hand-light at Michel's face for which he closed his eyes and clenched his fist to keep from turning his head away.  
"Just where do you think you're going sonny?"  
_Sonny? That's new.  
_"It's okay Abraums, let him through. He's with the others."  
"Sure thing." The cop flicked his light away and turned away from Michel. Now the group of four had their complete attention on Michel as he continued to approach.

"Have any _fun_ this evening?" Jensen asked under his breath with a smirk. Michel gave him a side look but didn't answer as he took his position in the circle the group was making. Michel shot him a quick glare, knowing exactly what he was implying.

Michel was about to apologize for arriving late but Crysta cut him off.  
"This is Detective Greenridge. He's the one who called and alerted me to the fresh kill."

Greenridge nodded. "I'll be honest, if I didn't already know what to look for, I doubt I would have noticed this one. The body has been sent to the morque but I did take some hair and blood samples myself for you to work off of."  
"Body?" Michel questioned.  
"There were two victims," Jensen explained, "One of us with a fresh human kill."

"The victim's throat was slashed after," the detective paused, "It may have been sloppy, but it was a clear sign of a cover up to-"  
"Being fed on," Keenan interrupted putting up a hand. "We get it.  
"No one knows our victim," Greenridge said. He may have wanted to continue the conversation but Michel didn't care.

"So somebody or bodies, what, grabbed the vampire while feeding, killed em, then covered up the evidence the vampire's attack. Is that what you're thinking?" He asked directly at Crysta.  
"That's what Danus thinks." She replied.  
"That doesn't make any sense."  
"It does kinda, but you just don't like it because it leaves us with even more questions than answers," Jensen interjected. Michel rolled his eyes at him.

They talked with the detective over some more details for a little while longer, then they left. Daylight was coming and the four vampires needed to scatter and get to safe sleeping quarters.

Jensen walked with Michel to his car. They discussed the parts about this recent attack that they both didn't like. The fact that there was evidence of leather bindings on the pipes next to the charred vampire remains. They both agreed on what that means.

Whoever had hunted the vampire, stayed to watch.


End file.
